Health Minister Harsh Vardhan’s statement in Lok Sabha that each and every person in the country need not be vaccinated was based on the premise that only a ‘critical mass’ needs to be vaccinated, a top health ministry official said on Saturday.

“It (the statement) relates to the theory of ‘critical mass’ in a population that needs to be vaccinated to break the ‘chain of transmission’ of the virus,” Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told BusinessLine .

Replying to a question from NCP MP Supriya Sule, Vardhan said on Friday that it is not scientifically necessary to administer vaccine to each and every person in the country, indicating that the vaccination drive may not cover the entire population.

Thekkekkara Jacob John, a renowned clinical virologist and epidemiologist, did not agree with the Minister’s view and said there should be a clear-cut strategy.

“Immunisation is for a purpose. There is a need to define the purpose. There could be three different purposes. First is for health-care objective, that is to prevent deaths and serious illness. The second is for public health purpose to reduce the burden of infection in the community. The third is to vaccine children and the working population so that schools and factories can be reopened,” John said.

“If you want to reduce the transmission — of course, that doesn’t seem to be part of the goal — they have to define the key people who need to be vaccinated. It cannot be one man’s decision, but a collective one taken by a group of experts,” John added.

K Srinath Reddy, President Public Health Foundation of India, however, said, “The main objective of immunisation with the currently available vaccines is to provide protection against moderate or severe illness due to infection. As of now, the impact on reduction in transmission has not been estimated through evidence. In future, mucosal vaccines may prevent infections too. Till they are available, our efforts are focussed on preventing essential workers from getting disabled from illness and protecting vulnerable persons who are aged or have pre-existing health conditions. Other adults become eligible later.”

Covid surge continues

As many as eight States are seeing a surge in daily Covid-19 cases and six among them have accounted for 84 per cent of the 40,953 fresh cases reported on Friday. With 25,681 new cases, Maharashtra alone accounted for nearly 64 per cent of the cases reported on Friday. The active cases tally has gone beyond 2.88 lakh, according to Health Ministry data released on Saturday.

The number of vaccinations carried out crossed 4.37 crore, with around 16.12-lakh doses administered till 7 pm on Saturday.

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